A federal judge ordered Google in August 2026 to make it easier for Android users to find and install rival app stores, after Epic Games demonstrated in court that the current process contains unnecessary barriers.
The hearing took place in a San Francisco courtroom before Judge James Donato, roughly one month after Epic Games and Google had appeared to pause their legal dispute over Android app distribution. The two sides were back before Donato after Epic argued Google was not fully complying with earlier remedies.
Nearly three years ago, a jury unanimously found that Google held an illegal monopoly over Android app distribution. Judge Donato subsequently ordered Google to carry rival app stores within the Google Play Store and to give competitors access to Google’s full app catalog.
At the August 2026 hearing, Epic’s lawyer Yonatan Even walked the court through a live demonstration showing how many steps users must currently navigate to install a third-party app store. Donato agreed that several steps constituted unnecessary “anticompetitive friction” and issued a series of specific directives.
First, Donato ordered Google to fix its Play Store search so that searching terms like “store for apps” surfaces actual third-party app stores — not physical retailers. “That is not acceptable, that has to be fixed,” he said. Second, he ordered Google to replace a “view” button with a direct “install” button when users select a rival app store. Third, he ordered Google to remove an intermediary “are you looking for” screen that appears when users search for terms like “app store” or search directly for a specific rival store such as Aptoide. Donato called that screen friction with “no purpose whatsoever.”
Google’s counsel agreed to each change in court. Judge Donato set a deadline of one week for Google to implement all of the ordered modifications.
Source: The Verge